Alkyl nitronates nitroalkene cycloaddition

Nitro compounds have been converted into various cyclic compounds via cycloaddition reactions. In particular, nitroalkenes have proved to be useful in Diels-Alder reactions. Under thermal conditions, they behave as electron-deficient alkenes and react with dienes to yield 3-nitrocy-clohexenes. Nitroalkenes can also act as heterodienes and react with olefins in the presence of Lewis acids to yield cyclic alkyl nitronates, which undergo [3+2] cycloaddition. Nitro compounds are precursors for nitrile oxides, alkyl nitronates, and trialkylsilyl nitronates, which undergo [3+2]cycloaddition reactions. Thus, nitro compounds play important roles in the chemistry of cycloaddition reactions. In this chapter, recent developments of cycloaddition chemistry of nitro compounds and their derivatives are summarized. 

Cyclic alkyl nitronates may be used in tandem [4+2]/[3+2] cycloadditions of nitroalkanes, and this reaction has been extensively studied by Denmark et al. (64,333-335). In recent work, they developed the silicon-tethered heterodiene-alkene 219 (Scheme 12.63). Steric hindrance and the fact that both the nitroalkene and the a,p-unsaturated ester in 219 are electron deficient renders the possibility of self-condensation. Instead, 219 reacts with the electron-rich chiral vinyl ether 220 in the presence of the catalyst 224 to form the intermediate chiral nitronate 221. The tandem reaction proceeds from 221 with an intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to form 222 with 93% de. Further synthetic steps led to the formation of ( )-detoxinine 223 (333). A similar type of tandem reaction has also been applied by Chattopadhyaya and co-workers (336), using 2, 3 -dideoxy-3 -nitro-2, 3 -didehydrothymidine as the starting material (336). 

Alkyl and silyl nitronates are, in principle, /V-alkoxy and /V-silyloxynitrones, and they can react with alkenes in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions to form /V-alkoxy- or /V-silyloxyisoxaz.olidine (see Scheme 8.25). The alkoxy and silyloxy groups can be eliminated from the adduct on heating or by acid treatment to form 2-isoxazolines. It should be noticed that isoxazolines are also obtained by the reaction of nitrile oxides with alkenes thus, nitronates can be considered as synthetic equivalents of nitrile oxides. Since the pioneering work by Torssell et al. on the development of silyl nitronates, this type of reaction has become a useful synthetic tool. Recent development for generation of cyclic nitronates by hetero Diels-Alder reactions of nitroalkenes is discussed in Section 8.3. 

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